1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling a multimedia device and a method for providing a Graphic User Interface (GUI).
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Home networks that place “home” at the core of the market have recently attracted much attention. Home networking refers to a technology that connects all communication devices and electronic appliances within a household and controls them, indoors and outdoors. A variety of devices may be connected for home networking, including living appliances such as a refrigerator, a washer, a door lock, an air conditioner, and a heater as well as audio, video and information appliances such as a TV, a PC, an audio, a telephone, a facsimile, and a printer.
The communication sector that is responsible for building networks is promoting home networks as a new business to overcome the saturation of the ultra high-speed Internet market. The home appliance industry is also pushing ahead with a paradigm shift from the traditional white home appliances to digital information appliances and digital convergence devices. Meanwhile, the Information Technology (IT) venture industry is preparing for a home network business in a wide range of fields including voice recognition, robotics, embedded software, and digital contents.
Especially, a large number of users have a plurality of PCs in their homes, network gaming is very popular, and almost all households have subscribed to ultra high-speed communication services. As a matter of fact, the infrastructure of the home network industry has already been put in place. The traditional communication environment in which PCs or specific equipment are connected to the Internet has been rapidly giving place to an Internet environment in which all devices are interconnected. Above all things, more and more users want to connect to their desired services while they are moving, owing to the development of mobile communication technology.
Along with this trend, the home environment has also been changed greatly. Beyond their unique functions, home appliances have been developed to be interconnected by networking and share desired information among them. Also, various home networking technologies are under development to connect home appliances with one another, such as a TV, an audio, etc.
Basically, a home network system that provides Internet connectivity to a user includes an Internet Protocol (IP) set-top box. The IP set-top box is a device that provides an information services, video contents, and broadcast programs to an image device such as a TV over an IP network, namely an ultra high-speed Internet. The home network system plays external media contents received from the Internet through the IP set-top box.
The recent development of electronics and mass production of electronic devices are a driving force behind the continuous decrease of the prices of electronic products, particularly portable multimedia devices. For example, products such as Portable Multimedia Players (PMPs), Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and mobile phones are cheap relative to their large capacities and various functions.
Mobile phones that have recently been put to the market offer multimedia functions like an MP3 player, a camera, an electronic dictionary to users, in addition to their basic function, that is, call. Although relatively expensive compared to other portable multimedia devices, a PMP is attracting interest as a promising future-generation portable convergence device that will substitute for an MP3 player due to its advantages of functionality and convenience.
To allow a user to view a video or an MP3 file with such an image device and a PMP, files stored in a PC or a home server (e.g. a home network server or a home gateway) should be received by a menu available at the image device and the PMP. To do so, however, the user should inconveniently connect the PC to the image device and the PMP by a Universal Serial Bus (USB).